No need to walk around in circles
by Reedie
Summary: Malcolm wakes up in an empty sickbay. Where is the crew and what happened?
1. When the ghostly dust

**Disclaimer****: Fanfiction. Not my characters. Plot is mine.**

**AN****: Back again! Mwuhahahaha! With confusing stories. Though I hope I can finally FINISH what I started **

**Here**** we go, enjoy!**

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The world zoomed in and out as images popped up. It was like watching a movie but having all the scenes in a random order.

"Fire torpedoes!"

Archer, standing on the bridge. He could see his hands in front of him, he was at his station. It seemed--

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"-not damaging, it would-"

They were being attacked! What was he going to---

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"Hull breach on deck 11!"

T'pol. Right before an explosion behind her caused her to turn and...

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"-boarded! Deck 2 through 7."

He tried to get in contact with his security teams, but not succeeding. He noticed the overload, tried to dive away..

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"Lieutenant? Bridge to sickbay!"

Someone standing over him. The world was blurred, his head ached. He was painfully aware that he hadn't been in time to dive away from his console

-

Images appeared and disappeared in his mind. He felt he was drowning in voices, only one or two could be heard clearly. There was an explosion of colors behind his eyes and a sharp pain went through his head.

Gasping, he shot upright. In his panic he felt the side of the bed and almost fell down. Stumbling, he got to his feet and tried to hold onto something. He felt as if he was on a small boat in sea in the middle of a storm.

_You're__ panicking. Stop it. Control yourself._ He tried to will his heartbeat down.

He saw nothing. He didn't know where he was. There was darkness. He touched his head and felt some kind of bandage over his eyes. Ripping it away, he caught the first glimpses of the world around him, and with it came an incredible nausea.

It was sickbay, but there were debris on the floor, and the lights, those that were still working, flickered on and off. There was no sign of the doctor. Stumbling back, he felt the wall behind him and slid down to the ground. He closed his eyes again, trying to suppress the urge to throw up.

When he opened them again, he was now also aware of the pain everywhere in his body. Slowly looking down to his arms he saw various cuts and bruises and his uniform was replaced by a sickbay tunic. There was a needle, with a small tube, injected in his right arm. He closed his hand around it and pulled it out, trying not to cry out in pain as he did so.

This wasn't right.

Now that he had calmed a little, he came to the first important question._ Where was everyone?_ Surely someone would have noticed him panicking here. But there was no sign of, well, anybody. He called out, his voice sounded strange to his own ears. There was no answer.

Slowly, he pulled himself up beside the biobed. He stood there swaying for a few seconds, waiting for the room to stop spinning. He dragged himself towards the comm. panel and pressed the button. He bit his cracked lip and swallowed.

"Reed to the bridge."

No static, there was a clear channel. The only problem was that there wasn't any answer. Somehow Malcolm had suspected it. He tried again, to no avail. After that he tried the armory, engineering ....

"Reed to anybody."

It sounded pathetic to his own ears. Like a cry for help in the middle of the desert. He sighed and looked up. His eyes stung, but he ignored it while staring at the cage on the right side of the panel. He frowned. Even Phlox animals were gone, the plants were still there. He reached out, but the plant fell in parts the moment he touched it. It seemed as if nobody had been here for a very long time.

The second question had been in his mind since the moment he woke up, but now he really focused on it. _What__ had happened?_

"Five years." Malcolm whirled around, the motion caused his nausea to come up again. He stared at the figure in front of him.

"Seems like a long time, doesn't it?" The man smiled wryly. Malcolm opened his mouth, but closed it again. He blinked and tried again.

"Daniels."

"Heh, yes. It's funny, you are probably the only one alive who knows my name...well, sort of." Daniels didn't seemed to be like Malcolm remembered him. Hadn't all that time traveling stopped? Hadn't it all been solved? Why was he here?

"What do you mean?" I didn't really came out as a question. But it was one, nevertheless. Daniels looked up to him.

"Enterprise was able to defeat the attackers. Enough so that they fled. But she was badly damaged, fending atmosphere very quickly. They had to abandon the ship, leaving only those behind that didn't make it. This whole deck was one of the first to be evacuated. Having no breathable atmosphere only minutes after they left you."

Malcolm raised his eyebrows. "Then wouldn't I be dead?"

"Well you were...are...sort of. Don't you wonder why they left you in the first place?" Daniels laughed bitterly. He was confusing Malcolm, it annoyed him.

"Why am I here talking to you then?" He asked, the anger wasn't hard to miss in his voice.

"Because Enterprise wasn't supposed to be attacked. After they evacuated the enemy destroyed the escape pods. One by one. None survived."

"Aren't you a bit late for that now!" Only 10 minutes before Malcolm had been talking to Trip. At least it felt like 10 minutes. And now Daniels was telling they were all dead. It hurt.

"Let's go for a walk."

"What?" He was being confusing again. It wasn't helping Malcolm's mood.

"I'm sure you're hungry." Daniels said with a wry smile. Malcolm just stared at him.

Daniels face fell. "No, you're right. It has been 5 years. I doubt there is still anything edible on the ship."

If he was going to play it this way, well, Malcolm wouldn't want to spoil his fun. He sighed. "Okay. Sure. Sounds like fun. Let's go for a bloody walk."

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**AN****: I know it seems really confusing! But wait! It will be explained, don't worry. I hope it will make a lot of more sense in the chapters to come. Though I'm still writing the story as we speak. ) **

**Please****, please, please click that little button and review. Should I continue**?


	2. of violence traces everything

AN: Thanks for the reviews. And thanks for pointing out the mistake! (fixed it now, I think) Please do point out my mistakes. It will improve my writing skills )

**Remember****, I love reviews! Enjoy!**

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The mess wasn't far better than sickbay. Everywhere you looked were signs of the battle and not one of the chairs was left standing. When they had walked through the empty corridors, there hadn't been exchanged a single word. Malcolm didn't say anything because he didn't want to. And Daniels, well, Malcolm guessed because he waited for him to speak, to give him some time tot hink about everything.

Malcolm picked up one of the chairs and placed it in front of the table. He wiped away some of the dust before sitting down and Daniels did the same. He looked at Daniels, taking in every detail. His hair was a mess and he looked like he hadn't been sleeping at all for a few days. He seemed older, too. All in all he probably still was a better sight than Malcolm himself. He was amused when he thought about what someone would say when they could see them now.

The lieutenant turned and looked through the window. It was space as nothing he had ever seen. A reddish glow filled the mess. Giving them the feeling they weren't on a spaceship at all, but on earth looking at a sunset. After a few minutes, Malcolm spoke up.

"So, where are we?"

Daniels looked up and didn't seem surprised by the question. "Hmm, not a parallel dimension if that's what you mean. More like a parallel timeline. Though it's hard to explain. You don't quite exist in the normal one."

"I don't quite exist? Well that's reassuring." Mumbled the armory officer. He was glad that Daniels understood his question though. He knew he couldn't be on the real Enterprise. Because, well, he would have been dead.

"So I'm supposed to be dead, but I'm not." He said matter-of-factly. Daniels nodded but didn't say more.

"And you're here because this all wasn't supposed to happen. And you're going to prevent it." Again, a nod.

"Aren't you 5 years too late for that?" This time, Malcolm turned fully towards Daniels, who sighed.

"This was the closest I could get. We had barely enough time to register the change of the timeline before it effected ours." He looked up. "And we aren't really 5 years too late. I just had to have a timeline in which there was still a you. Dead or alive.....Well, you're alive now."

"A me? What do you need me for? What can we do in this place to help Enterprise 5 years ago?" Malcolm felt frustrated. And he looked frustrated judging by Daniels reaction.

"Calm down, lieutenant. It's quite simple actually. Being in a place that doesn't effect the normal timeline seems useless. But it's quite helpful. We have all the time we want and from here we can go to specific timelines, though only in the past." Daniels answered calmly. Malcolm felt as if he was beginning to understand. Though some thing still didn't fit.

"So what do you need me for? And why don't you just go to the day of the attack to prevent it?" It wasn't a question asked by someone who was annoyed. More like a question someone would ask when interested. Daniels was relieved by this reaction and answered quickly.

"We tried that. More times than I care to remember. I won't work, no matter what we do. But I think we figured it out now." Daniels seemed to become more enthusiastic as he talked and Malcolm wondered who 'we' were.

"So you have a plan? How can you be sure it won't fail like all the other times." Like always, Malcolm was his pessimistic self. Someone needed to have the job. Daniels just smiled.

"I have this feeling.." He answered, and Malcolm raised his eyebrows.

"You're plan is based on a feeling." He said without asking anything. He sounded like he wanted to disapprove the plan already. Daniels frowned.

"Now lieutenant, I thought you of all people would understand that. Don't you ever trust your guts on some things? Like if something is a trap or not?" Daniels stared at him and Malcolm sighed. He was right.

"So what's the plan?"

"Saturday morning. 7 o'clock. Enterprise gets an encoded message from Starfleet. They are told not to go to their former destination. Instead, Starfleet wants them to go to a different set of coordinates. Supposedly there should be a ship waiting for them from the Tridian Patch. More would be explained upon arrival." Daniels had a tone of somebody debriefing a team of inspectors.

"I remember that..." Malcolm frowned it had only been a short time ago for him, though his mind was still a bit foggy. "Captain didn't tell us why we had to change our heading, which annoyed me greatly." His accent was more pronounced while talking.

"That's because there never was a reason for Starfleet to give that order." Daniels said and leaned back in his chair. Malcolm stared at him and suddenly realization dawned..

"And the Tridian ship..." He trailed off while trying to call up his memories.

"Wasn't waiting there." Daniels finished. "Instead there were 3 other ships from a yet unknown race to Starfleet, or most of the universe in your time for that matter."

"Didn't even hail us or fire a warning shot!" Malcolm leaned forward as the images popped up in his mind again. He remembered now.

"That's because they were out to destroy Enterprise. To kill its crew." _And they had succeeded. _Daniels added in his thoughts.

"Why would Starfleet send us out there without reason? Unless.."

"Unless it wasn't Starfleet." Again, Daniels finished for him. It all made sense. Daniels continued.

"Saturday night. 2 o'clock. A shuttle lands near Starfleet headquarters. Four people step out, they all look human, but one is not. His intentions are to sabotage the communication and _send__ that order._" He finished and waited for Malcolm to speak.

"Why would they want to kill the Enterprise's crew?" Of course he knew, but he wanted to hear it. To have it made clear to him.

"Isn't it obvious? _This_ crew was of great importance to the future." Daniels answered but Malcolm shook his head.

"But I thought that the Temporal Cold War was over?" He asked and Daniels face darkened.

"Oh, this isn't about the Temporal Cold War. This is a whole new game." He waited for the words to sink in. "Our job is to prevent that order to be send."


	3. When you were languishing in rooms

**Thanks**** for the reviews!! **

**This**** is a very strange chapter. It was inspired a little by a book I read a loooong time ago. Enjoy and please review D**

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The lights seemed to have an annoying habit of flickering every time the armory officer looked up. Malcolm Reed didn't pay any attention to it, though. He was much more interested in keeping that strange emotional feeling that seemed to attack him from the inside under control. Was it nervousness? Or maybe fear? Whatever it was, Malcolm knew it would be far better off without it. Unwillingly his hand searched for his phase pistol at his side.

He stopped walking and turned to look at Daniels who quickly took his place behind the transporter controls. Daniels gave him a small nod of encouragement before Malcolm stepped onto the platform. As Daniels' hands flew over the controls, Malcolm noted that he seemed to be doing this for the 100th time. Though he had no idea what Daniels was doing exactly, he trusted him to do it right.

He looked up. The lights flickered. He sighed and stared down at his feet. They had a plan, they had been talking about it all night..or day. Whatever it was. And Malcolm was going to execute the plan. Simple as that.

"Are you ready?" Daniels asked when he was done making his preparations. _Of course I'm not ready. _Malcolm thought and swallowed, but gave the tiniest of nods anyway. Daniels flashed him a smile and looked back at the console.

"Here we go..." He said, and Malcolm could only feel the feeling of fear, because he was certain it was fear now, increase. It seemed like a cold hand had clutched his hearth and had not intention to release it anytime soon. Before Malcolm could return the smile he saw the room disappear. However, it was not accompanied with the familiar feeling of his molecules being compressed in a data stream. This time it seemed completely different, as if someone was tucking on his arms and legs before spinning him around really fast. Next thing he knew was stumbling into another room.

Wherever he was, he was sure it wasn't the station he was supposed to be. Or maybe it wasn't the time that was right. Their was a strange foul smell in the room. The second thing he noticed was the figure standing up from the table. The table was littered with pieces of paper, but Malcolm returned his attention at the person who was now making his way to him. He unwillingly did a step back as his mouth went dry.

"Bloody.." He started before the other person interrupted him.

"It's good to see myself again." The other Malcolm said and smiled, though it did not reach his eyes which looked at him sadly.Whatever Malcolm had been expecting, this wasn't it.

"Though I know how confusing this is for you at the moment, we have to hurry." The other Malcolm said, suddenly turning quite agitated. His eyes searched for the phase pistol at Malcolm's side, who still looked at him completely at loss of words.

"Shoot me." The other Malcolm quickly said and looked up again.

"What?" Malcolm asked, now alarmingly aware that he was talking to... himself.

"Problem is that we can't have two Malcolm's in one universe. The whole thing gets mixed up. We all agreed that this happened because of a power surge the moment Daniels activated the Time transport. The others died of hunger before we figured out to solve it, though." His eyes flew to the small opening which lead to another room, and Malcolm was suddenly aware where the stench had come from.

"I though you would never show up, I was afraid I wouldn't get the chance to explain it. And then the whole bloody thing would start over again." The other Malcolm was talking as quickly as possible. Though he was trying to explain it to Malcolm, he only succeeded in making him more confused.

"The thought is that the error will be resolved after you shoot me before the time corridor closes. I think it will right itself." The other Malcolm finished. Malcolm told himself to get over the shock of seeing himself, and focus on the task at hand.

"You think? So you're not sure?" Malcolm finally spoke. His head was spinning. This was bizarre.

"Well, we can't be sure. We have to find out, won't we? We don't have much time." The other Malcolm said dryly and fixed him with a stare that Malcolm recognized immediately._ Stop talking, just do it._

Whatever he was to think about the situation, Malcolm didn't know. What he did know was that he wasn't in a position to argue. He thought better to listen, his eyes darted to his phase pistol. The other Malcolm closed his eyes when he noticed Malcolm had made his choice.

"Are you certain?" Malcolm asked again, while taking his phase pistol out of its holster ever so slowly. _I'm__ going to kill him....me. This can't be happening. _Malcolm thought. The other Malcolm opened one eye and glared at him.

"Of course I'm not certain! You're about to bloody shoot me. But please get over it, before I change my mind." He closed his eyes again and waited for Malcolm to shoot him. Malcolm checked the setting on his phase pistol and pointed at the other Malcolm. He stared at the other Malcolm for what seemed like an eternity, though it reality it were only seconds. His finger lingered before the trigger and for a moment the only thing what could be hearth was the heavy breathing of the other Malcolm.

Then he fired.

Malcolm blinked when he was again standing in the room, but now it was bustling with activity. Starfleet officers were happily chatting away in the mess. Because that was what the room actually was. This was definitely the worst morning he had ever had.

There was a cough behind him. "Are you going to keep standing there, lieutenant. Or are you going to get into the turbolift?" Malcolm turned to see another lieutenant looking at him with a bemused expression. He couldn't be much older than him. Still shaken by his experience only a minute before, Malcolm stepped into the turbolift and leaned against the back wall. He was going to be sick, he knew it. So much stress in such a short time wasn't healthy for anyone. The lieutenant cast him a concerned glance.

"What deck are you going?" He asked. Malcolm looked up, he wasn't feeling good. He wasn't sure if only the stress was causing this. _Where__ did he have to go again? _For a moment he searched in his memories._ ...C deck? C deck, definitely. ....Was the lift spinning?_ He thought, before his legs gave way and he collapsed on the ground.


End file.
